Cougar.
Puma. Panther. Catamount.

Those above words all are valid names to call Women who sit around
drinking wine all day and prey upon younger...wait a minute, what am I
saying? That's not
correct. I'm confused. Cougar Town is not about Cougars, either. Or so
I
have been told. Then why are they…oh my word, it's TWO Cougars!

Not long ago, Greyson Ross of PuddingBoy Productions and Eric from
thisisjean.com
contacted Rick Lazzarini and The Character Shop with a scintillating
and intriguing proposal: Create a talking Cougar character for a series
of Web Promos for the upcoming premiere of "Cougar Town" on TBS. Since
Rick loves a challenge, is passionate about figuring out how to make
things work,
and extremely good at solving puzzles, he jumped at the chance.

Having already created one and having it in the shop helped a lot with
his decision, too.

But this time it was different!

8 years previously, Lazzarini and crew had constructed a wondrously
beautiful Puma for a Cadbury ad.
However, that
particular cat was seen to be relaxing, prone, on a bed, whilst playing
a guitar.

The NEW challenge was that the cat had to be sitting up, vertically.
And called a "Cougar". Because they're the same thing!

Well, the name change turned out to be the easier part. In order
to have the animal sitting upright, an entirely new body, from the neck
down, had to be created, and the original animatronic head removed
(decapitated? decatipated? kitterpated? whatever) and grafted onto the
new body, muahahahaha!

The Cougar needed to be used in 6 promo spots, five of them sitting on
a couch, and one sitting on a chair at a Kitchen table. Special
customization had to happen to both couch and chair to accommodate the
Puppeteers beneath, namely, Rick Lazzarini (working the head, jaw, and
lip movements) and Deb Smith (with her slender arms bringing the cat's
forepaws to life). Finally, Puppeteer Bob Mano used radio control to
bring the Cougar's blinks, eyes, ears, and brows to life. All in all,
it's a pretty expressive puppet!

In addition, Lazzarini also was
chosen to perform as the voice of the
Cougar, which allowed for spontaneity and improvisation, in-camera and
on set, as he could manipulate the animatronic Cougar's head and mouth,
in real time, right along with his dialogue.

The icing on the cake (or the cream on the catnip, as they say in the
Family Felidae) was the pleasure of working and playing with Jennifer
Bini Taylor, the super-funny, super-professional, and super HOT "other"
Cougar. And neither of the two Characters are particularly bright.

The result is a series of sensationally stupid interactions that
resulted in over a Million YouTube hits for the campaign, and a lot of
compliments and calls for the Two Cougars to have their *own* show.
Needless to say: We're down with that!

Need a realistic animal to
deliver dialogue and come to life for your project? Or a silly one?